Set management for flexible bandwidth carriers

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and devices for mobility management for wireless communications systems that utilize flexible bandwidth carriers are provided. Some embodiments include intra-frequency and/or inter-frequency set management based on the value of bandwidth scaling factors for flexible bandwidth carriers to facilitate the mobility management. For example, one or more cells of a wireless communications system may be identified. A respective bandwidth scaling factor associate with each respective identified cell may be identified. A user equipment may be configured determine multiple sets. Each respective set may be associated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors. The user equipment may be configured to associate each respective identified cell with one of the respective sets based on their respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

CROSS-RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application for patent claims priority to ProvisionalApplication No. 61/556,777 entitled “FRACTIONAL SYSTEMS IN WIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS” filed Nov. 7, 2011, and assigned to the assignee hereofand hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.The present application for patent also claims priority to ProvisionalApplication No. 61/568,742 entitled “SIGNAL CAPACITY BOOSTING,COORDINATED FORWARD LINK BLANKING AND POWER BOOSTING, AND REVERSE LINKTHROUGHPUT INCREASING FOR FLEXIBLE BANDWIDTH SYSTEMS” filed Dec. 9,2011, and assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expresslyincorporated by reference herein for all purposes. The presentapplication for patent also claims priority to Provisional ApplicationNo. 61/607,502 entitled “MOBILITY MANAGEMENT FOR FLEXIBLE BANDWIDTHSYSTEMS AND DEVICES” filed Mar. 6, 2012, and assigned to the assigneehereof and hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein for allpurposes.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication content such as voice, video, packet data,messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-accesssystems capable of supporting communication with multiple users bysharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, andpower). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-divisionmultiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA)systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP LongTerm Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multipleaccess (OFDMA) systems.

Service providers are typically allocated blocks of frequency spectrumfor exclusive use in certain geographic regions. These blocks offrequencies are generally assigned by regulators regardless of themultiple access technology being used. In most cases, these blocks arenot integer multiple of channel bandwidths, hence there may beunutilized parts of the spectrum. As the use of wireless devices hasincreased, the demand for and value of this spectrum has generallysurged, as well. Nonetheless, in some cases, wireless communicationssystems may not utilize portions of the allocated spectrum because theportions are not big enough to fit a standard or normal waveform. Thedevelopers of the LTE standard, for example, recognized the problem anddecided to support many different system bandwidths (e.g., 1.4, 3, 5,10, 15 and 20 MHz). Another approach may be to utilize flexiblebandwidth carrier systems that may involve wireless communicationssystems that utilize portions of spectrum that may not fit a normalwaveform. However, different mobility management issues may arise whenutilizing flexible bandwidth carrier systems, such as facilitatingmigration between mixed legacy and flexible bandwidth carrier systems.

SUMMARY

Methods, systems, and devices for mobility management for wirelesscommunications systems that utilize flexible bandwidth carriers areprovided. Some embodiments include intra-frequency and/orinter-frequency set management based on the value of bandwidth scalingfactors for flexible bandwidth carriers to facilitate the mobilitymanagement. For example, it may be known that connected mode sets may beutilized in different situations. After a cell is measured andidentified during a search, the cell may be placed in different sets,such as sets based on cells signaled from the network like a virtualset, an active set, or a monitored set. A detected set may be made ofcells not signaled by the network but discovered by a user equipment(UE). The methods, systems, and devices provided may help a flexiblebandwidth carrier UE manage the set of cells that have been identifiedas it moves from one cell to another; the cells may be flexible ornon-flexible bandwidth cells, including UMTS or GSM cells, for example.

Flexible bandwidth carrier systems may involve wireless communicationssystems that may utilize portions of spectrum that may not be big enoughto fit a normal waveform through utilizing flexible waveforms. Aflexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated with respect to anormal bandwidth carrier system through dilating a frame length orscaling down a chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carrier system withrespect to the normal bandwidth carrier system, for example. In someembodiments, a flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated withrespect to a normal bandwidth carrier system through dilating the framelengths, or scaling down, the bandwidth of the flexible bandwidthcarrier system with respect to the normal bandwidth carrier system. Someembodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform throughexpanding, or scaling up a chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carriersystem. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveformthrough decreasing the frame lengths, or scaling up the bandwidth of theflexible bandwidth carrier system.

Some embodiments include a method of mobility management for a wirelesscommunications system. The method may include: identifying one or morecells of the wireless communications system; identifying a respectivebandwidth scaling factor associate with each respective identified cell;determining multiple sets, where each respective set is associated withone of the respective bandwidth scaling factors; and/or associating eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

Some embodiments include determining a candidate cell from within themultiple sets. Determining the candidate cell from within the multiplesets may utilize at least a serving cell ID, a center frequency, or arespective bandwidth scaling factor. Some embodiments include utilizingone or more offsets with respect to the multiple sets to determine thecandidate cell from within the plurality of sets. Some embodimentsinclude utilizing one or more power offsets with respect to the multiplesets to determine the candidate cell from within the multiple sets.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining multiple activesets, where each respective active set may be associated with arespective bandwidth scaling factor. Each respective active set may befurther associated with at least a cell ID, a center carrier frequency,or a channel number. Some embodiments include determining multiplebandwidth scaling factors, where each respective bandwidth scalingfactor is associated with an active set. Some embodiments includedetermining at least one active set that is associated with multiplebandwidth scaling factors.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining multiple virtualactive sets, where each respective virtual active set may be associatedwith a respective bandwidth scaling factor. Some embodiments includedetermining multiple bandwidth scaling factors, where each respectivebandwidth scaling factor may be associated with a virtual active set.Some embodiments include determining at least one virtual active setthat is associated with multiple bandwidth scaling factors.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining one or moremonitored or candidate sets, where each respective monitored orcandidate set is associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.Some embodiments include determining multiple bandwidth scaling factors,where each respective bandwidth scaling factor is associated with atleast a monitored set or a candidate set. Some embodiments includedetermining at least monitored set or candidate set that is associatedwith multiple bandwidth scaling factors. Determining the multiple setsmay include determining one or more detected or neighbor sets, whereeach respective detected or neighbor set may be associated with arespective scaling factor.

In some embodiments, identifying the one or more cells of the wirelesscommunications system includes: determining a measurement of each of theone or more identified cells; and/or determining that the measurement ofeach of the one or more identified cells exceeds a determinedmeasurement threshold. The measurement may include at least a signalstrength, a relative strength, a signal quality, or a measurement errorstatistic. The determined measurement threshold may be remapped with abandwidth.

Determining the candidate cell from within the multiple sets mayfacilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrier and asecond bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein the first flexiblebandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier utilize the samebandwidth scaling factor. Determining the candidate cell from within themultiple sets may facilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidthcarrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein thefirst flexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrierutilize different bandwidth scaling factor. Determining the candidatecell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between anormal bandwidth carrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier. Determiningthe candidate cell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobilitybetween a first radio access technology and a system with a flexiblebandwidth carrier.

In some embodiments, the wireless communications system includesmultiple cells configured for simultaneous communication with a userequipment, where each cell may utilize at least a different carrier or adifferent bandwidth. Some embodiments may include a wirelesscommunications system that may include multiple cells configured toconnect with a user equipment, where each cell may include multiplecarriers. In some cases, the wireless communications system may includea cell configured to utilize two different carrier frequenciessimultaneously to communicate with a user equipment.

Some embodiments include a wireless communications system configured formobility management for wireless communications. The system may include:means for identifying one or more cells of the wireless communicationssystem; means for identifying a respective bandwidth scaling factorassociate with each respective identified cell; means for determiningmultiple, where each respective set is associated with one of therespective bandwidth scaling factors; and/or means for associating eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective bandwidth associated scaling factors.

Some embodiments include means for determining a candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets. Some embodiments include means for utilizingone or more offsets with respect the multiple sets to determine thecandidate cell from within the multiple sets.

The means for determining the multiple sets may include means fordetermining multiple active sets, where each respective active set maybe associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The means fordetermining the multiple sets may include means for determining multiplevirtual active sets, where each respective virtual active set may beassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The means fordetermining the multiple sets may include means for determining one ormore monitored or candidate sets, where each respective monitored orcandidate set may be associated with a respective bandwidth scalingfactor. The means for determining the multiple sets may include meansfor determining one or more detected or neighbor sets, where eachrespective detected or neighbor set may be associated with a respectivescaling factor.

The means for identifying the one or more cells may include: means fordetermining a measurement of each of the one or more identified cells;and/or means for determining that the measurement of each of the one ormore identified cells exceeds a determined measurement threshold.

The means for determining the candidate cell from within the multiplesets may facilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrierand a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, where the firstflexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier may utilizethe same bandwidth scaling factor. The means for determining thecandidate cell from within the multiples sets may facilitate mobilitybetween a first flexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidthflexible bandwidth carrier, where the first flexible bandwidth carrierand the second bandwidth carrier may utilize different bandwidth scalingfactor. The means for determining the candidate cell from within themultiple sets may facilitate mobility between a normal bandwidth carrierand a flexible bandwidth carrier.

Some embodiments include a computer program product for mobilitymanagement for a wireless communications system that may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium that may include: code foridentifying one or more cells of the wireless communications system;code for identifying a respective bandwidth scaling factor associatewith each respective identified cell; code for creating multiple sets,where each respective set may be associated with one of the respectivebandwidth scaling factors; and/or code for associating each respectiveidentified cell with one of the respective sets based on theirrespective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

The non-transitory computer-readable medium may further include code fordetermining a candidate cell from within the multiple sets. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium may further include code forutilizing one or more offsets with respect to the multiple sets todetermine the candidate cell from within the plurality of sets.

The code for determining the multiple sets may include code fordetermining multiple active sets, where each respective active set maybe associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The code fordetermining the multiple sets may include code for determining multiplevirtual active sets, where each respective virtual active set may beassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The code fordetermining the multiple sets may include code for determining one ormore monitored or candidate sets, where each respective monitored orcandidate set may be associated with a respective bandwidth scalingfactor. The code for determining the multiple sets may include code fordetermining one or more detected or neighbor sets, where each respectivedetected or neighbor set may be associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor.

The code for identifying one or more cells of the wirelesscommunications system may include: code for determining a measurement ofeach of the one or more identified cells; and/or code for determiningthat the measurement of each of the one or more identified cells exceedsa determined measurement threshold.

The code for determining the candidate cell from within the multiplesets may facilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrierand a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, where the firstflexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier may utilizethe same bandwidth scaling factor. The code for determining thecandidate cell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobilitybetween a first flexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidthflexible bandwidth carrier, where the first flexible bandwidth carrierand the second bandwidth carrier may utilize different bandwidth scalingfactor. The code for determining the candidate cell from within themultiple sets may facilitate mobility between a normal bandwidth carrierand a flexible bandwidth carrier.

Some embodiments include a wireless communications device configured formobility management for a wireless communications system. The device mayinclude at least one processor that may be configured to: identify oneor more cells of the wireless communications system; identify arespective bandwidth scaling factor associate with each respectiveidentified cell; create multiple sets, where each respective set isassociated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors; and/orassociate each respective identified cell with one of the respectivesets based on their respective associated scaling factors. The devicemay also include at least one memory coupled with the at least oneprocessor.

The at least one processor may be further configured to determine acandidate cell from within the multiple sets. The at least one processormay be further configured to utilize one or more offsets with respect tothe multiple sets to determine the candidate cell from within multiplesets.

The at least one processor configured to determine the multiples setsmay be configured to determine multiple active sets, where eachrespective active set may be associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor. The at least one processor configured to determine themultiples sets may be configured to determine multiple virtual activesets, where each respective virtual active set may be associated with arespective bandwidth scaling factor. The at least one processorconfigured to determine the multiples sets may be configured todetermine one or more monitored or candidate sets, where each respectivemonitored or candidate set may associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor. The at least one processor configured to determine themultiples sets may be configured to determine one or more detected orneighbor sets, where each respective detected or neighbor set may beassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.

The at least one processor configured to identify one or more cells ofthe wireless communications system may be configured to: determine ameasurement of each of the one or more identified cells; and/ordetermine that the measurement of each of the one or more identifiedcells exceeds a determined measurement threshold.

The at least one processor configured to determine the candidate cellfrom within the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between a firstflexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidthcarrier, where the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the secondbandwidth carrier may utilize the same bandwidth scaling factor. The atleast one processor configured to determine the candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between a firstflexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidthcarrier, where the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the secondbandwidth carrier may utilize different bandwidth scaling factor. The atleast one processor configured to determine the candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between a normalbandwidth carrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of examples according to the disclosure in order that thedetailed description that follows may be better understood. Additionalfeatures and advantages will be described hereinafter. The conceptionand specific examples disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis formodifying or designing other structures for carrying out the samepurposes of the present disclosure. Such equivalent constructions do notdepart from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Features whichare believed to be characteristic of the concepts disclosed herein, bothas to their organization and method of operation, together withassociated advantages will be better understood from the followingdescription when considered in connection with the accompanying figures.Each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration anddescription only, and not as a definition of the limits of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the presentinvention may be realized by reference to the following drawings. In theappended figures, similar components or features may have the samereference label. Further, various components of the same type may bedistinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a secondlabel that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the firstreference label is used in the specification, the description isapplicable to any one of the similar components having the same firstreference label irrespective of the second reference label.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a wireless communications system inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2A shows an example of a wireless communications system where aflexible waveform fits into a portion of spectrum not broad enough tofit a normal waveform in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 2B shows an example of a wireless communications system where aflexible waveform fits into a portion of spectrum near an edge of a bandin accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a wireless communications system inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram illustrating mobility management proceduresin accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5 shows a table that includes several mobility management singlecarrier scenarios in accordance with various embodiments;

FIGS. 6A and 6B shows block diagrams of devices configured for mobilitymanagement in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a device configured for mobilitymanagement in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of cell sets when the mobile device is inconnected mode;

FIG. 9 shows a set transition diagram for inter-frequency scenarios inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 10 shows a set transition diagram in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 11 shows a communications diagram for an inter-frequency mobilityscenario in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 12 shows a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of a wireless communications system thatincludes a base station and a user equipment in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 14 shows a block diagram of a wireless communications system thatincludes a base station and a user equipment in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 15A shows a flow diagram of a method of mobility management in awireless communications system in accordance with various embodiments;and

FIG. 15B shows a flow diagram of a method of mobility management in awireless communications system in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods, systems, and devices for mobility management for wirelesscommunications systems that utilize flexible bandwidth carriers areprovided. Some embodiments include intra-frequency and/orinter-frequency set management based on the value of bandwidth scalingfactors for flexible bandwidth carriers to facilitate the mobilitymanagement.

For single carrier cells in mobility scenarios, inter-frequency mobilityscenarios may refer to scenarios where the handover or reselection maybe performed between two cells, each cell having a center carrierfrequency (or channel number) that may be different from the centercarrier frequency (i.e., different channel number) used in the othercell. The bandwidth of both carriers could be the same or different. Forintra-frequency scenarios, the two cells both may have carriers with thesame center frequencies and the same or different bandwidths. Forexample, there can be inter-frequency-same-bandwidth andintra-frequency-same-bandwidth, inter-frequency-different-bandwidth,intra-frequency-same-bandwidth and intra-frequency-different-bandwidth.Such demarcations can be generalized. For example, it may be known thatconnected mode sets may be utilized in different situations for cellacquisition or mobility. After a cell that is signaled by the network tothe user equipment (UE) is measured and identified during a search, thecell may be placed in different sets, such as a virtual set, an activeset, or a monitored set. A detected set may be made of cells notsignaled by the network but discovered by a UE. The methods, systems,and devices provided may help a flexible bandwidth carrier UE manage theset of cells that have been identified as it moves from one cell toanother; the cells may be flexible or non-flexible bandwidth cells,including UMTS or GSM cells, for example.

Flexible bandwidth carrier systems may involve wireless communicationssystems that may utilize portions of spectrum that may not be big enoughto fit a normal waveform through utilizing flexible waveforms. Aflexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated with respect to anormal bandwidth carrier system through dilating a frame length orscaling down a chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carrier system withrespect to the normal bandwidth carrier system, for example. In someembodiments, a flexible bandwidth carrier system may be generated withrespect to a normal bandwidth carrier system through dilating the framelengths, or scaling down, the bandwidth of the flexible bandwidthcarrier system with respect to the normal bandwidth carrier system. Someembodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveform throughexpanding, or scaling up a chip rate of the flexible bandwidth carriersystem. Some embodiments increase the bandwidth of a flexible waveformthrough decreasing the frame lengths, or scaling up the bandwidth of theflexible bandwidth carrier system. A flexible carrier can be part of amulti-flow system (i.e., system where multiple cells may besimultaneously in communication with one UE, the cells can have same ordifferent carriers, and the same or different bandwidths), amulti-carrier system (i.e., a system whereby the UE may be connected toa system with multiple cells and each of these cells have multiplecarriers with the same or different bandwidths.), a dual-cell system(i.e., this may be similar to the dual-cell UMTS where a cell may usetwo different carrier frequencies simultaneously to communicate with theUE; the two carriers may have the same bandwidth), and/or a supplementaldownlink and/or uplink system. Set management may also be done on thesecarrier combinations.

Set management may handle intra-frequency cells and/or inter-frequencycells in accordance with various embodiments. Since intra-frequencycells may have the same bandwidth scaling factor (e.g., same bandwidth,chip-scaling factor), a UE may generate only one active, one monitored,and one detected sets. This may be the same as what is performed inUMTS, for example. Triggering conditions for moving cells from themonitored to the active set may need to be modified for flexiblebandwidth cells (e.g., cell power offset may be modified for flexiblebandwidth cells, reporting ranges, active set sizes could be optimizedfor flexible bandwidth deployment, etc. For inter-frequency cells,multiple virtual active sets may be created. One virtual active set maybe created for each unique frequency/bandwidth pair. In contrast, onlyone monitored and one detected set may be used for keeping records ofintra-frequency, inter-frequency and inter-RAT cells in some cases. Inflexible bandwidth carrier systems, since a different frequency may havethe same bandwidth scaling factor or different bandwidth scalingfactors, the UE may generate a virtual active set for each frequency butthey may have different bandwidth scaling factors. Cells identified bythe UE as belonging to the monitored and detected sets may be added tothe appropriate sets with the bandwidth scaling factor values.

Techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunications systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA,Peer-to-Peer, and other systems. The terms “system” and “network” areoften used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement a radiotechnology such as CDMA2000, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA),etc. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95, and IS-856 standards. IS-2000Releases 0 and A are commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1X, 1X, etc.IS-856 (TIA-856) is commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, High RatePacket Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and othervariants of CDMA. A TDMA system may implement a radio technology such asGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA or OFDM systemmay implement a radio technology such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB),Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE802.20, Flash-OFDM, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal MobileTelecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) andLTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA,E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from anorganization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). CDMA2000and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3rdGeneration Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). The techniques describedherein may be used for the systems and radio technologies mentionedabove as well as other systems and radio technologies.

Thus, the following description provides examples, and is not limitingof the scope, applicability, or configuration set forth in the claims.Changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elementsdiscussed without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.Various embodiments may omit, substitute, or add various procedures orcomponents as appropriate. For instance, the methods described may beperformed in an order different from that described, and various stepsmay be added, omitted, or combined. Also, features described withrespect to certain embodiments may be combined in other embodiments.

Referring first to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrates an example of awireless communications system 100 in accordance with variousembodiments. The system 100 includes base stations 105, user equipment115, a base station controller 120, and a core network 130 (thecontroller 120 may be integrated into the core network 130 in someembodiments; in some embodiments, controller 120 may be integrated intobase stations 105). The system 100 may support operation on multiplecarriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). Multi-carriertransmitters can transmit modulated signals simultaneously on themultiple carriers. Each modulated signal may be a Code Division MultipleAccess (CDMA) signal, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signal,Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) signal, Orthogonal FDMA(OFDMA) signal, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) signal, etc. Eachmodulated signal may be sent on a different carrier and may carrycontrol information (e.g., pilot signals), overhead information, data,etc. The system 100 may be a multi-carrier LTE network capable ofefficiently allocating network resources.

The user equipment 115 may be any type of mobile station, mobile device,access terminal, subscriber unit, or user equipment. The user equipment115 may include cellular phones and wireless communications devices, butmay also include personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, otherhandheld devices, netbooks, notebook computers, etc. Thus, the term userequipment should be interpreted broadly hereinafter, including theclaims, to include any type of wireless or mobile communications device.

The base stations 105 may wirelessly communicate with the user equipment115 via a base station antenna. The base stations 105 may be configuredto communicate with the user equipment 115 under the control of thecontroller 120 via multiple carriers. Each of the base station 105 sitescan provide communication coverage for a respective geographic area. Insome embodiments, base stations 105 may be referred to as a NodeB,eNodeB, Home NodeB, and/or Home eNodeB. The coverage area for each basestation 105 here is identified as 110-a, 110-b, or 110-c. The coveragearea for a base station may be divided into sectors (not shown, butmaking up only a portion of the coverage area). The system 100 mayinclude base stations 105 of different types (e.g., macro, micro, femto,and/or pico base stations).

The different aspects of system 100, such as the user equipment 115, thebase stations 105, the core network 130, and/or the controller 120 maybe configured to utilize flexible bandwidth and waveforms in accordancewith various embodiments. System 100, for example, shows transmissions125 between user equipment 115 and base stations 105. The transmissions125 may include uplink and/or reverse link transmission, from a userequipment 115 to a base station 105, and/or downlink and/or forward linktransmissions, from a base station 105 to a user equipment 115. Thetransmissions 125 may include flexible and/or normal waveforms. Normalwaveforms may also be referred to as legacy and/or normal waveforms.

The different aspects of system 100, such as the user equipment 115, thebase stations 105, the core network 130, and/or the controller 120 maybe configured to utilize flexible bandwidth and waveforms in accordancewith various embodiments. For example, different aspects of system 100may utilize portions of spectrum that may not be big enough to fit anormal waveform. Devices such as the user equipment 115, the basestations 105, the core network 130, and/or the controller 120 may beconfigured to adapt the chip rates and/or scaling factors to generateand/or utilize flexible bandwidth and/or waveforms. Some aspects ofsystem 100 may form a flexible subsystem (such as certain user equipment115 and/or base stations 105) that may be generated with respect to anormal subsystem (that may be implemented using other user equipment 115and/or base stations 105) through dilating, or scaling down, the time ofthe flexible subsystem with respect to the time of the normal subsystem.

In some embodiments, the different aspects of system 100, such as theuser equipment 115 may be configured to identify one or more cells ofthe wireless communications systems 100. A respective bandwidth scalingfactor or bandwidth associate with each respective identified cell maybe identified. User equipment 115 may be configured to determinemultiple sets. Each respective set may be associated with one of therespective bandwidth scaling factors. User equipment 115 may beconfigured to associate each respective identified cell with one of therespective sets based on their respective associated bandwidth scalingfactors.

Some embodiments may include user equipment 115 and/or base stations 105that may generate flexible waveforms and/or normal waveforms. Flexiblewaveforms may occupy less bandwidth than a normal waveform. For example,at a band edge, there may not be enough available spectrum to place anormal waveform. For a flexible waveform in some embodiments, as timegets dilated, the frequency occupied by a waveform goes down, thusmaking it possible to fit a flexible waveform into spectrum that may notbe broad enough to fit a normal waveform. Flexible waveforms may also begenerated in some embodiments through using a scaling factor. Otherembodiments may generate a flexible waveform to fit a portion ofspectrum through altering a rate or chip rate (e.g., a spreading factormay change). Some embodiments may change a frequency of processing tochange a chip rate or utilize a scaling factor. Embodiments may utilizea flexible bandwidth carrier. Changing frequency of processing mayinclude changing an interpolation rate, an interrupt rate, and/or adecimation rate. In some embodiments, a chip rate may be changed or ascaling factor utilized through filtering, by decimation, and/or bychanging a frequency of an ADC, a DAC, and/or an offline clock. Adivider may be used to change the frequency of at least one clock. Insome embodiments, a chip rate divider (Dcr) may be utilized. In someembodiments, a scaling factor for a flexible bandwidth carrier may bereferred to as a bandwidth scaling factor.

In some embodiments, a flexible system or waveform may be a fractionalsystem or waveform. Fractional systems and/or waveforms may or may notchange bandwidth for example. A fractional system or waveform may beflexible because it may offer more possibilities than a normal system orwaveform (e.g., N=1 system). A normal system or waveform may refer to astandard and/or legacy system or waveform.

FIG. 2A shows an example of a wireless communications system 200-a witha base station 105-a and a user equipment 115-a in accordance withvarious embodiments, where a flexible waveform 210-a fits into a portionof spectrum not broad enough to fit a normal waveform 220-a. System200-a may be an example of system 100 of FIG. 1. In some embodiments,the flexible waveform 210-a may overlap with the normal waveform 220-athat either the base 105-a and/or the user equipment 115-a may transmit.Some embodiments may also utilize multiple flexible waveforms 210. Insome embodiments, another base station and/or user equipment (not shown)may transmit the normal waveform 220-a and/or the flexible waveform210-a. FIG. 2B shows an example of a wireless communications system200-b with a base station 105-b and user equipment 115-b, where aflexible waveform 210-b fits into a portion of spectrum near an edge ofa band, which may be a guard band, where normal waveform 220-b may notfit. System 200-b may be an example of system 100 of FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, the user equipment 115-a and/or 115-b may beconfigured to facilitate mobility management with respect to one or moreflexible bandwidth cells, or base stations 105. Set management and/orhandover may occur with carriers that are co-located (with different N,for example) and carriers that may not be co-located (with different N,for example). The user equipment 115-a and/or 115-b may be configured toidentify one or more cells of the wireless communications systems200-a/200-b. A respective bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidthassociate with each respective identified cell may be identified. Userequipment 115-a/115-b may be configured to determine multiple sets. Eachrespective set may be associated with one of the respective bandwidthscaling factors. User equipment 115-a/115-b may be configured toassociate each respective identified cell with one of the respectivesets based on their respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

FIG. 3 shows a wireless communications system 300 with base station105-c and/or base station 105-d and user equipment 115-c and/or userequipment 115-d in accordance with various embodiments. In someembodiments, the user equipment 115-c and/or 115-d may be configured formobility management, including set management. For such set management,some embodiments include intra-frequency and/or inter-frequency setmanagement based on the value of bandwidth scaling factors N. The userequipment 115-c and/or 115-d may be configured to identify one or morecells, which may include base station 105-d and/or cells of base station105-c and/or 105-d, of the wireless communications systems 300. In somecases, one or more base station such as 105-c may include multiplecells. A respective bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associate witheach respective identified cell may be identified. User equipment 115-cand/or 115-d may be configured to determine multiple sets. Eachrespective set may be associated with one of the respective bandwidthscaling factors. User equipment 115-c and/or 115-d may be configured toassociate each respective identified cell with one of the respectivesets based on their respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.System 300 may be an example of system 100 of FIG. 1 and/or system 200of FIG. 2.

Transmissions 305-a, 305-b, 305-c between the user equipment 115-cand/or 115-d and the base station 105-c may utilize flexible waveformsthat may be generated to occupy less (or more) bandwidth than a normalwaveform. In some cases, the transmissions 305-d and/or 305-e mayutilize flexible waveforms. For example, at a band edge, there may notbe enough available spectrum to place a normal waveform. For a flexiblewaveform, as time gets dilated, the frequency occupied by a waveformgoes down, thus making it possible to fit a flexible waveform intospectrum that may not be broad enough to fit a normal waveform. In someembodiments, the flexible waveform may be scaled utilizing a scalingfactor N with respect to a normal waveform. Scaling factor N may take onnumerous different values including, but not limited to, integer valuessuch as 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, etc. N, however, does not have to be an integer.In some cases, a chip rate divider (Dcr) may be utilized, which may havethe same numerical value as a bandwidth scaling factor. Merely by way ofexample, a flexible bandwidth carrier system with N=2 may occupy halfthe bandwidth of an normal bandwidth carrier system or flexiblebandwidth carrier system with N=1. For example, ransmissions 305-a,305-b, and/or 305-c between the user equipment 115-c and/or 115-d andthe base station 105-c may utilize different bandwidth scaling factorsN. In some cases, carriers and/or transmissions 305 may be changed (withdifferent bandwidth scaling factors), but there still may becommunication to the base station 105-c at the same location. In somecases, transmission 305-a between base station 105-c and user equipment115-c may change bandwidth scaling factors. Set management and/orhandover may occur with carriers and/or transmissions 305 that areco-located (with different N, for example) and carriers that may not beco-located (with different N, for example). System 300 may be part of amulti-flow system (i.e., system where multiple cells may besimultaneously in communication with one UE, the cells can have same ordifferent carriers, and the same or different bandwidths), amulti-carrier system (i.e., a system whereby the UE may be connected toa system with multiple cells and each of these cells have multiplecarriers with the same or different bandwidths.), a dual-cell system(i.e., this may be similar to the dual-cell UMTS where a cell may usetwo different carrier frequencies simultaneously to communicate with theUE; the two carriers may have the same bandwidth), and/or a supplementaldownlink and/or uplink system. Set management may also be done on thesecarrier combinations.

Some embodiments may utilize additional terminology. A new unit D may beutilized. The unit D is dilated. The unit is unitless and has the valueof N. One can talk about time in the flexible system in terms of“dilated time”. For example, a slot of say 10 ms in normal time may berepresented as 10 Dms in flexible time (note: even in normal time, thiswill hold true since N=1 in normal time: D has a value of 1, so 10Dms=10 ms). In time scaling, one can replace most “seconds” with“dilated-seconds”. Note frequency in Hertz is 1/s.

As discussed above, a flexible waveform may be a waveform that occupiesless bandwidth than a normal waveform. Thus, in a flexible bandwidthsystem, the same number of symbols and bits may be transmitted over alonger duration compared to a normal bandwidth system. This may resultin time stretching, whereby slot duration, frame duration, etc., mayincrease by a scaling factor N. Scaling factor N may represent the ratioof the normal bandwidth to flexible bandwidth (BW). Thus, data rate in aflexible bandwidth system may equal (Normal Rate×1/N), and delay mayequal (Normal Delay×N). In general, a flexible systems channelBW=channel BW of normal systems/N. Delay×BW may remain unchanged.Furthermore, in some embodiments, a flexible waveform may be a waveformthat occupies more bandwidth than a normal waveform.

Throughout this specification, the term normal system, subsystem, and/orwaveform may be utilized to refer to systems, subsystems, and/orwaveforms that involve embodiments that may utilize a scaling factorthat may be equal to one (e.g., N=1) or a normal or standard chip rate.These normal systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may also be referredto as standard and/or legacy systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms.Furthermore, flexible systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may beutilized to refer to systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms that involveembodiments that may utilize a scaling factor that may be not equal toone (e.g., N=2, 3, 4, 8, ½, ¼, etc.). For N>1, or if a chip rate isdecreased, the bandwidth of a waveform may decrease. Some embodimentsmay utilize scaling factors or chip rates that increase the bandwidth.For example, if N<1, or if the chip rate is increased, then a waveformmay be expanded to cover bandwidth larger than a normal waveform.Flexible systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may also be referred toas fractional systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms in some cases.Fractional systems, subsystems, and/or waveforms may or may not changebandwidth, for example. A fractional system, subsystem, or waveform maybe flexible because it may offer more possibilities than a normal orstandard system, subsystem, or waveform (e.g., N=1 system).

A flexible waveform may include a waveform that occupies less bandwidththan a normal waveform. For example, at the band edge, there may not beenough available spectrum to place a normal waveform. Unlike normalwaveforms, there can be partial or complete overlap between normal andflexible waveforms. It is to be noted that the flexible waveform mayincrease the system capacity. There can be a trade off between extent ofoverlap and the bandwidth of the flexible waveform. The overlap maycreate additional interference. Embodiments may be directed at methods,systems, and/or devices and be aimed at reducing the interference.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a block diagram 400 illustrates mobilitymanagement procedures in accordance with various embodiments. Aspects ofblock diagram 400 may be implemented in whole or in part utilizingvarious wireless communications devices including, but not limited to: abase station 105 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 13, and/or FIG.14; a device 600-a as seen in FIG. 6A; a device 600-b as seen in FIG.6B; a device 700 of FIG. 7; a user equipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG.2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and/or FIG. 14; and/or a core network 130and/or controller 120 as seen in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 13. At block 405, anetwork may signal assistance information to UE to assist UE in mobilitymanagement. The network may signal assistance information aboutneighboring available cells to the UEs, for example. At block 410,bandwidth information, such as one or more bandwidth scaling factors Nor flexible bandwidths, may be determined at a UE. This may be part of asearch procedure. For example, the UE may search for cells or carriersautonomously and/or with the help of the network. The cells may beflexible bandwidth cells; the carriers may be flexible bandwidthcarriers. In some cases, the bandwidth scaling factors and/or flexiblebandwidths associated with different flexible bandwidth cells orcarriers may be signaled to the UE from the network, through a basestation, for example. In cases where the value of N or the bandwidth isnot signaled to the UE, the UE may determine the one or more bandwidthscaling factors and/or flexible bandwidths associated with one or morecells using a variety of procedures as discussed herein. For example,many N hypotheses could be tried. At block 415, set managementprocedures may be performed. For example, a UE may develop variousmobility cell sets to be used for further handovers and reselections asshown in block 420.

Embodiments may include a variety of mobility management scenarios. Aflexible bandwidth UE, for example, may use the mobility procedures tomigrate according to different mobility scenarios. A flexible bandwidthUE may move from a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell with bandwidthscaling factor N=x to another flexible bandwidth carrier or cell withthe same N. These cells may be deployed on the same carrier frequencybut separated by different identifications (e.g., PSCs), for example.The two cells could also be deployed on different carrier frequencies insome embodiments. A flexible bandwidth UE may move from a flexiblebandwidth carrier or cell with N=x to another flexible bandwidth carrieror cell with a different N, N=y. Both cells may be deployed on differentcarrier frequencies. A flexible bandwidth UE may move from a flexiblebandwidth carrier or cell with N=x to a non-flexible, or legacy, cell,such as UMTS and/or GSM cells, for example. Likewise, the UE may movefrom a non-flexible bandwidth carrier or cell, or legacy cell, such asUMTS and/or GSM to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell. Both cells maybe deployed on different carrier frequencies. In some cases, thenon-flexible bandwidth carrier or cell, or legacy cell, such as UMTSand/or GSM cells, and flexible bandwidth carrier or cells may beco-located at the same site or deployed in different sites. In someembodiments, once a UE moves to a flexible bandwidth carrier or cell, itmay perform mobility procedures (e.g., send registration message,location area updates, routing area updates, etc.) as currentlyperformed in non-flexible networks, or legacy networks, such as UMTSnetworks, for example. While some of the above examples include UMTSand/or GSM cells, other embodiments may utilize other radio accesstechnologies (RATs). Flexible bandwidth system may be treated as anextension (or mode) of the legacy RAT or can be treated as a separateRAT in some cases.

FIG. 5 shows a table 500 that includes several different mobilityscenarios for single carrier cells, though some embodiments may utilizeother scenarios. Handover/Reselection scenarios 510 show severaldifferent cases of possible UE moves from one carrier to another, wherethe carriers may be flexible bandwidth carriers and/or normal (orlegacy) bandwidth carriers. Deployment scenarios 520 for each casereflect whether the deployment scenarios may be intra-frequency,inter-frequency, and/or inter-RAT. During mobility operations involvingmulti-carrier or multi-flow scenarios, each of the cells/carriers in thesystem may experience a mobility scenario similar to the single carrierscenarios illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, a multicarrier system A(with two carriers) may involve a handover to multicarrier system B(i.e., Carrier A1 may handover to Carrier B1 and Carrier A2 to CarrierB2). In this case, the links between Carriers A1 and B1, and Carrier A2and B2 may experience handover situation similar to those illustratedCases 1 to 4 in FIG. 5. Aspects of table 500 may be implemented in wholeor in part utilizing various wireless communications devices including,but not limited to: a base station 105 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG.3, FIG. 13, and/or FIG. 14; a device 600-a as seen in FIG. 6A; a device600-b as seen in FIG. 6B; a device 700 of FIG. 7; a user equipment 115as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and/or FIG. 14;and/or a core network 130 and/or controller 120 as seen in FIG. 1 and/orFIG. 13.

Turning next to FIG. 6A, a block diagram illustrates a device 600-a formobility management in accordance with various embodiments. The device600-a may be an example of one or more aspects of user equipment 115described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14. The device 600-a may also be a processor. The device600-a may include a receiver module 605, a set management module 615,and/or a transmitter module 615. Each of these components may be incommunication with each other.

These components of the device 600-a may, individually or collectively,be implemented with one or more application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs) adapted to perform some or all of the applicable functions inhardware. Alternatively, the functions may be performed by one or moreother processing units (or cores), on one or more integrated circuits.In other embodiments, other types of integrated circuits may be used(e.g., Structured/Platform ASICs, Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGAs), and other Semi-Custom ICs), which may be programmed in anymanner known in the art. The functions of each unit may also beimplemented, in whole or in part, with instructions embodied in amemory, formatted to be executed by one or more general orapplication-specific processors.

The receiver module 605 may receive information such as packet, data,and/or signaling information regarding what device 600-a has received ortransmitted. The received information may be utilized by the setmanagement module 615 for a variety of purposes.

For example, the set management module 615 may be configured to identifyone or more cells of a wireless communications system. A respectivebandwidth scaling factor associate with each respective identified cellmay be identified. The set management module 615 may be configured todetermine multiple sets. Each respective set may be associated with oneof the respective bandwidth scaling factors. The set management module615 may be configured to associate each respective identified cell withone of the respective sets based on their respective associatedbandwidth scaling factors.

The set management module 615 may be configured to determine a candidatecell from within the multiple sets. Determining the candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets may utilize at least a serving cell ID, acenter frequency, or a respective bandwidth scaling factor. Thecandidate cell may be considered a best cell. One or more offsets may beutilized by the set management module 615 may be configured to withrespect to the one or more sets to determine the candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets. Power offsets may be utilized in some cases.

The set management module 615 may be configured to determine themultiple sets may include determining multiple active sets, where eachrespective active set is associated with a respective bandwidth scalingfactor. Each respective active sets may be further associated with atleast a cell ID, a center carrier frequency, or a channel number. Theset management module 615 may be configured to determine multiplebandwidth scaling factors, where each respective bandwidth scalingfactor is associated with an active set. The set management module 615may be configured to determine at least one active set that isassociated with multiple bandwidth scaling factors.

The set management module 615 may be configured to determine themultiple sets may include determining multiple virtual active sets,where each respective virtual active set is associated with a respectivebandwidth scaling factor. The set management module 615 may beconfigured to determine multiple bandwidth scaling factors, where eachrespective bandwidth scaling factor is associated with an virtual activeset. The set management module 615 may be configured to determine atleast one virtual active set that is associated with multiple bandwidthscaling factors.

The set management module 615 may be configured to determine themultiple sets may include determining one or more monitored or candidatesets, where each respective monitored or candidate set is associatedwith a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The set management module615 may be configured to determine multiple bandwidth scaling factors,where each respective bandwidth scaling factor is associated with amonitored set. The set management module 615 may be configured todetermine at least one monitored set that is associated with a multiplebandwidth scaling factors. The set management module 615 may beconfigured to determine the multiple sets may include determining one ormore detected or neighbor sets, where each respective detected orneighbor set is associated with a respective scaling factor.

The set management module 615 may be configured to identify the one ormore cells of the wireless communications systems may includedetermining a signal strength or a measurement of each of the one ormore identified cells. It may be determined whether the signal strengthor the measurement of each of the one or more identified cells exceeds adetermine signal strength threshold or a determined measurementthreshold. The set management module 615 may use other information andstatistics from the cell. Such information can be signal strength,channel power, relative channel power, error rates, error numbers, etc.Furthermore, the threshold may be modified by over the air messages. Thethresholds may be mapped or modified with respect to the bandwidth. Forexample, take a system with one N=1 and one N=2 carries located at thesame location and transmitting the same power spectral density (PSD).All other things being equal, to compare signal strengths of the twosystems, the signal threshold for the ½ BW system could be scaled by 3dB with respect to the N=1 system.

The set management module 615 may be configured to determine thecandidate cell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobilitybetween a first flexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidthflexible bandwidth carrier, where the first flexible bandwidth carrierand the second bandwidth carrier utilize the same bandwidth scalingfactor. The set management module 615 may be configured to determine thecandidate cell from the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between afirst flexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexiblebandwidth carrier, wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and thesecond bandwidth carrier utilize different bandwidth scaling factor. Theset management module 615 may be configured to determine the candidatecell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between anormal flexible bandwidth carrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.

Device 600-a may be part of wireless communications system that includesmultiple cells configured for simultaneous communication with a userequipment, where each cell utilizes at least a different carrier or adifferent bandwidth. In some cases, the wireless communications systemmay includes multiple cells configured to connect with a user equipment,where each cell includes a plurality of carriers. The wirelesscommunications system may include cell configured to utilize twodifferent carrier frequencies simultaneously to communicate with a userequipment.

Turning next to FIG. 6B, a block diagram illustrates a device 600-b formobility management in accordance with various embodiments. The device600-b may be an example of one or more aspects of user equipment 115described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14. The device 600-b may also be a processor. The device600-a may include a receiver module 605-a, a set management module615-a, and/or a transmitter module 615-a. Set management module 615-amay include virtual active set management module 610, active setmanagement module 611, monitored set management module 612, and/ordetected set management module 613. Each of these components may be incommunication with each other. Device 600-b may be an example of device600-a of FIG. 6A.

These components of the device 600-b may, individually or collectively,be implemented with one or more application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs) adapted to perform some or all of the applicable functions inhardware. Alternatively, the functions may be performed by one or moreother processing units (or cores), on one or more integrated circuits.In other embodiments, other types of integrated circuits may be used(e.g., Structured/Platform ASICs, Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGAs), and other Semi-Custom ICs), which may be programmed in anymanner known in the art. The functions of each unit may also beimplemented, in whole or in part, with instructions embodied in amemory, formatted to be executed by one or more general orapplication-specific processors.

The receiver module 605-a may receive information such as packet, data,and/or signaling information regarding what device 600-b has received ortransmitted. The received information may be utilized by the setmanagement module 615-a for a variety of purposes.

For example, the set management module 615-a may be configured toidentify one or more cells of the wireless communications systems. Arespective bandwidth scaling factor or bandwidth associate with eachrespective identified cell may be identified. The set management module615 may be configured to determine multiple sets. Each respective setmay be associated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors.The set management module 615 may be configured to associate eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

The active set (AS) management module 611 may be configured to determinethe multiple sets may include determining multiple active sets, whereeach respective active set is associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor. The virtual active set (VAS) management module 610 maybe configured to determine the multiple sets may include determiningmultiple virtual active sets, where each respective virtual active setis associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor. The monitoredset management module 612 may be configured to determine the multiplesets may include determining one or more monitored or candidate sets,where each respective monitored or candidate set is associated with arespective bandwidth scaling factor. The detected set management module613 may be configured to determine the multiple sets may includedetermining one or more detected or neighbor sets, where each respectivedetected or neighbor set is associated with a respective scaling factor.

In some cases, a VAS may be for a frequency that is measured but notbeing used so that s UE has the right cells if the UE decides to move tothat frequency in some cases. An AS may be for the currently usedfrequency in some cases. The VAS and AS may have different BW scalingfactors, with the scaling factor remaining same within each set. Eachset may have cells with different scaling factors. An AS in thecurrently used frequency may have only one N or multiple Ncells/carriers. Each cell in the AS may have a Radio Link with the UE.If an AS can only contain cells with one N, then intra-frequency other Ncells, if any, (i.e., cells with different N but same channel number)may need to be maintained in a separate set. A VAS may be used for thosesame frequency cells belonging to different N, for example. There can bedifferent VASs for different Ns for the same channel number, VASs fordifferent Ns for different channel number, and/or VASs for same N forthe different channel number.

In some embodiments, if a currently used frequency is i and N=N1, then:intra-frequency, same N AS: AS(N1,i); intra-frequency, different N VAS:VAS (N other than N1,i); inter-frequency, same N VAS: VAS(N1,j) where jmay not bed same as i; and/or inter-frequency, different N VAS: VAS(Nother than N1,j) where j may not be same as i.

In some embodiments, for single carrier intra-frequency scenarios withdifferent Ns, the cell information can be stored in the AS, where eachcell in the AS have an associated N. The current cell may only have aRadio link with cells in the AS with the same N. Some embodiments mayutilize: intra-frequency, different N AS: AS (N other than N1,i).

For multi-carrier and/or multi-flow scenarios or if an AS can containmultiple N cells on a same frequency, the following sets may be utilizedfor some embodiments. If frequencies are i and j, then: intra-frequency,same N AS: AS(N1,i); intra-frequency, different N AS: AS(N other thanN1,i); inter-frequency, same N AS: AS(N1,j) where j may not be same asi; and/or inter-frequency, different N AS: AS(N other than N1,j) where jmay not be same as i. The last two sets may be for multi-carrier andmulti-flow scenarios.

For multi-carrier and/or multi-flow scenarios, each cell in themulti-carrier or the multi-flow scenario may have similar cell sets asdiscussed in the single carrier scenario. In this case, eachmulti-carrier/multi-flow cell (e.g., a cell with ID A1, N=N1 andfrequency i) could have the following sets for example: intra-frequency,same N AS: AS_A1(N1,i); intra-frequency, different N VAS: VAS_A1(N otherthan N1,i); intra-frequency, different N AS: AS_A1(N other than N1,i);inter-frequency, same N VAS: VAS_A1(N1,j) where j may not be same as i;and/or inter-frequency, different N VAS: VAS_A1(N other than N1,j) wherej may not be same as i. In these examples, AS_A1 and VAS_A1 may refer tothe active set of cell A1 and VAS_A1 refer to the virtual active set ofcell A1.

The cell sets (e.g., AS and VAS) from the multi-carrier and/ormulti-flow cells in the system may be maintained separately or combinedto form super active and virtual active sets in some embodiments. Incases where they are combined, in the super AS and VAS, the componentssets belonging to cell A1 may be denoted as such: intra-frequency, sameN AS: AS(N1,i,A1); intra-frequency, different N VAS: VAS(N other thanN1,i,A1) or intra-frequency, different N AS: AS(N other than N1,i,A1);inter-frequency, same N VAS: VAS(N1,j,A1) where j may not be same as I;and/or inter-frequency, different N VAS: VAS(N other than N1,j,A1) wherej may not be same as i.

Turning next to FIG. 7, a block diagram illustrates a device 700 formobility management in accordance with various embodiments. The device700 may be an example of one or more aspects of user equipment 115described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14. The device 700 may also be a processor. The device 700may include a receiver module 605-b, a cell identification module 710, abandwidth scaling factor identification module 715, and/or a setmanagement module 615-b, and/or a transmitter module 615-b. Each ofthese components may be in communication with each other. Device 700 maybe an example of device 600-a of FIG. 6A and/or device 600-b of FIG. 6B.

These components of the device 700 may, individually or collectively, beimplemented with one or more application-specific integrated circuits(ASICs) adapted to perform some or all of the applicable functions inhardware. Alternatively, the functions may be performed by one or moreother processing units (or cores), on one or more integrated circuits.In other embodiments, other types of integrated circuits may be used(e.g., Structured/Platform ASICs, Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGAs), and other Semi-Custom ICs), which may be programmed in anymanner known in the art. The functions of each unit may also beimplemented, in whole or in part, with instructions embodied in amemory, formatted to be executed by one or more general orapplication-specific processors.

The receiver module 605-b may receive information such as packet, data,and/or signaling information regarding what device 700 has received ortransmitted. The received information may be utilized by the cellidentification module 710, the bandwidth scaling factor identificationmodule 715, and/or the set management module 615-b, for a variety ofpurposes. Set management module 615-b may perform the functions asdescribed with respect to set management module 615 of FIG. 6A and/orset management module 615-a of FIG. 6B.

For example, the cell identification module 710 may be configured toidentify one or more cells of a wireless communications system. Thebandwidth scaling factor identification module 715 be configured todetermine a respective bandwidth scaling factor associate with eachrespective identified cell may be identified. The set management module615-b may be configured to determine multiple sets. Each respective setmay be associated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors.The set management module 615-b may be configured to associate eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

The cell identification module 710 may be configured to identify the oneor more cells of the wireless communications systems through determininga signal strength of each of the one or more identified cells. It may bedetermined whether the signal strength of each of the one or moreidentified cells exceeds a determine signal strength threshold. The cellidentification module 710 may use other information and statistics fromthe cell. Such information can be signal strength, channel power,relative channel power, error rates, error numbers, etc. Furthermore,the threshold may be modified by over the air messages. The thresholdsmay be mapped or modified with respect to the bandwidth. For example,take a system with one N=1 and one N=2 carries located at the samelocation and transmitting the same power spectral density (PSD). Allother things being equal, to compare signal strengths of the twosystems, the signal threshold for the ½ BW system could be scaled by 3dB with respect to the N=1 system.

Some embodiments may utilize set management to facilitate mobilitymanagement. For example, it may be known that connected mode sets may beutilized in different situations. For example, after a cell is measuredand identified during the search, the cell may be placed in theactive/virtual active or monitored set. A detected set may be made ofcells not signaled by the network but discovered by the UE. FIG. 8 showsa block diagram 800 that reflects these different forms of sets.

Set management in accordance with various embodiments may handleintra-frequency cells 810 and/or inter-frequency cells 830 with respectto connected mode 805. Since all intra-frequency cells may have the sameN (same bandwidth), UE may generate only one active set 815, onemonitored set 820, and/or one detected set 825 set. This may be the sameas what is performed in UMTS, for example. In some cases, theintra-frequency cells may have a virtual active set 816, possibly one ofeach N. Each set can either have all Ns or there can be multipleinstances of each set, one for each N. Triggering conditions for movingcells from the monitored to the Active set may need to be modified forflexible bandwidth cells (e.g., cell offset may be modified forfractional bandwidth cells, reporting ranges, active set sizes could beoptimized for flexible bandwidth deployment, etc.). For inter-frequencycells, multiple virtual active sets 835 may be created. One virtualactive set 835 may be created for each unique frequency. In contrast,only one monitored set 840 and one detected set 845 may be used forkeeping records of intra-frequency, inter-frequency and inter-RAT cellsin some cases. In flexible bandwidth systems, since a differentfrequency may have the same N or different Ns, the UE may generate avirtual active set for each frequency but they may have different Ns.Cells identified by the UE as belonging to the monitored and detectedsets may be added to the appropriate sets with the N values alsoincluded.

During cell evaluation, an offset may be required for fair comparisonbetween cells belonging to different Ns as flexible bandwidth cells mayhave lower transmit power than full bandwidth N=1 system. FIG. 9 shows aset diagram 900 in accordance with various embodiments that may reflectthe transitions between the different sets, including virtual activesets (VA) 910-a, 910-b, . . . , 910-s, monitored set (M) 920, and/ordetected set (D) 930. Note that each VA may have a scaling factor Nassociated with it, along with a frequency. Some embodiments may includechoosing the best candidate. The best candidate may not necessarily bethe dominating parameter that goes into whether to promote a cell to theactive set. For example, the best candidate may be on different N sopromoting that candidate will remove the current active set at adifferent N. For example, there may be multiple candidates at N1 but thebest candidate may be at N2. The UE may choose N1 active set since theremay be more “acceptable” candidates in that frequency.

[ECP: Can we generalize? Feel free to change the wording: Other groupsare possible including a VA of multiple N's or multiple VAs of the sameN.]

FIG. 10 shows a set diagram 1000 in accordance with various embodiments.Set diagram 1000 may provide an example of CDMA set management withflexible bandwidth cells. Flexible bandwidth inter-frequency cells canhave the same N or different Ns as the serving cell. User equipment orUEs may generate an active set (A) 1010 for each frequency but they mayhave different N. Candidate (C) sets (1020-a, 1020-b, 1020-c, 1020-d),Neighbor sets (N) (1030-a, 1030-b, 1030-c, 1030-d), and/or Remaining (R)sets (1040-a, 1040-b, 1040-c, 1040-d) may have identified cells with Nfactor also identified. Other embodiments may include more or lessCandidate sets 1020, Neighbor sets 1030, and/or Remaining sets 1040.

In DO or 1X, an Active set may have sectors from different frequenciesbut user equipment may go to a different frequency when all sectors inActive Set belonging to a given frequency have gone below a threshold.This may ensure stickiness to a certain frequency. Embodiments can havesets (e.g., A 1010, C 1020, N 1030, R 1040) for each N. The criteria toqualify for inclusion in Active set for different Ns may be different.Cells with different N in the Active set may provide another embodiment,as shown in FIG. 10. However, UE may use the N value of frequency it isin. During cell evaluation, an offset may be utilized for faircomparison between cells belonging to different Ns as fractional BWcells might same lower transmit power (i.e., same PSD as full BWsystem). Different may be sent to flexible bandwidth UE (the UE maysometimes be referred to as access terminals (AT)). This information mayinclude, but is not limited to: SID/NID (1×) and Subnet ID (EV-DO) ifdifferent from that of full BW system, Channel Information—Band Class,Channel Number etc., PN Offset, flexible bandwidth scaling factor (N),and/or Relative Time since Jan. 6, 1980 or some other reference (as timeis slowed/dilated); sync message in EV-DO might need to convey thisinstead of absolute time.

FIG. 11 shows a communications diagram 1100 that shows an example of aUE moving from a UMTS cell, Cell A, to a flexible bandwidth carrier orcell, Cell B, with N=4. While the UE may be in idle mode on Cell B,flexible bandwidth carrier or cell information may be signaled to UE onSIB 11 (e.g., carrier frequency, primary scrambling code (PSC), etc.)but the N value for cell B may not be signaled. UE may determine N usingspectrum estimation and stores the N information for cell B). UE maydetermine N using spectrum estimation and may store the N informationfor cell B. The UE may transition into connected mode with Cell A fordata or voice connection. In the connected mode, if the link between theUE and the network experiences degradation in signal strength, thenetwork may provide compressed gaps to the UE to measure flexiblebandwidth carrier or Cell B. Since Cell B may have already beenidentified in idle mode, the N and cell timing may be known so theacquisition delay may be minimized. The UE may then measure the signalstrength on the cell and may add the cell to a virtual active set due incase the strong signal strength may be detected on that cell. In thecase the signal strength of Cell B is above a threshold, aninter-frequency event may be triggered so UE sends a measurement reportto the network. The network may order an inter-frequency handover incase the network finds the flexible bandwidth carrier or Cell B to bemore suited for the UE than Cell A. The UE may tune to flexiblebandwidth carrier or Cell B and may update the network with its location(e.g., sending a routing area update (RAU) or a location area update(LAU) as currently performed in UMTS networks). Aspects ofcommunications diagram 1100 may be implemented in whole or in partutilizing various wireless communications devices including, but notlimited to: a base station 105 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG.13, and/or FIG. 14; a device 600-a as seen in FIG. 6A; a device 600-b asseen in FIG. 6B; a device 700 of FIG. 7; a user equipment 115 as seen inFIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and/or FIG. 14; and/or a corenetwork 130 and/or controller 120 as seen in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 13.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram 1200 of a user equipment 115-e configured tofacilitate the mobility management in accordance with variousembodiments. The user equipment 115-e may have any of variousconfigurations, such as personal computers (e.g., laptop computers,netbook computers, tablet computers, etc.), cellular telephones, PDAs,digital video recorders (DVRs), internet appliances, gaming consoles,e-readers, etc. The user equipment 115-e may have an internal powersupply (not shown), such as a small battery, to facilitate mobileoperation. In some embodiments, the user equipment 115-e may be the userequipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14; and/or device 600-a of FIG. 6A, device 600-b of FIG. 6B,and/or device 700 of FIG. 7. The user equipment 115-e may be amulti-mode user equipment. The user equipment 115-e may be referred toas a wireless communications device in some cases.

The user equipment 115-e may include antennas 1240, a transceiver module1250, memory 1280, and a processor module 1270, which each may be incommunication, directly or indirectly, with each other (e.g., via one ormore buses). The transceiver module 1250 is configured to communicatebi-directionally, via the antennas 1240 and/or one or more wired orwireless links, with one or more networks, as described above. Forexample, the transceiver module 1250 may be configured to communicatebi-directionally with base stations 105 of FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG.13, and/or FIG. 14. The transceiver module 1250 may include a modemconfigured to modulate the packets and provide the modulated packets tothe antennas 1240 for transmission, and to demodulate packets receivedfrom the antennas 1240. While the user equipment 115-e may include asingle antenna, the user equipment 115-e will typically include multipleantennas 1240 for multiple links.

The memory 1280 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-onlymemory (ROM). The memory 1280 may store computer-readable,computer-executable software code 1285 containing instructions that areconfigured to, when executed, cause the processor module 1270 to performvarious functions described herein (e.g., call processing, databasemanagement, message routing, etc.). Alternatively, the software 1285 maynot be directly executable by the processor module 1270 but beconfigured to cause the computer (e.g., when compiled and executed) toperform functions described herein.

The processor module 1270 may include an intelligent hardware device,e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) such as those made by Intel®Corporation or AMD®, a microcontroller, an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor module 1270 may include aspeech encoder (not shown) configured to receive audio via a microphone,convert the audio into packets (e.g., 30 ms in length) representative ofthe received audio, provide the audio packets to the transceiver module1250, and provide indications of whether a user is speaking.Alternatively, an encoder may only provide packets to the transceivermodule 1250, with the provision or withholding/suppression of the packetitself providing the indication of whether a user is speaking.

According to the architecture of FIG. 12, the user equipment 115-e mayfurther include a communications management module 1260. Thecommunications management module 1260 may manage communications withother user equipment 115. By way of example, the communicationsmanagement module 1260 may be a component of the user equipment 115-e incommunication with some or all of the other components of the userequipment 115-e via a bus. Alternatively, functionality of thecommunications management module 1260 may be implemented as a componentof the transceiver module 1250, as a computer program product, and/or asone or more controller elements of the processor module 1270.

The components for user equipment 115-e may be configured to implementaspects discussed above with respect to device 600-a of FIG. 6A, 600-bof FIG. 6B, and/or device 700 of FIG. 7 and may not be repeated here forthe sake of brevity. For example, the cell identification module 710-amay be the cell identification module 710 of FIG. 7. The bandwidthscaling factor identification module 715-a may be the bandwidth scalingfactor identification module 715 of FIG. 7. The set management module615-c may be the set management module 615 of FIG. 6A, set managementmodule 615-a of FIG. 6B, and/or set management module 415-b of FIG. 7

The user equipment 115-e may also include a spectrum identificationmodule 1215. The spectrum identification module 1215 may be utilized toidentify spectrum available for flexible waveforms. In some embodiments,a handover module 1225 may be utilized to perform handover procedures ofthe user equipment 115-e from one base station to another. For example,the handover module 1225 may perform a handover procedure of the userequipment 115-e from one base station to another where normal waveformsare utilized between the user equipment 115-e and one of the basestations and flexible waveforms are utilized between the user equipmentand another base station. A scaling module 1210 may be utilized to scaleand/or alter chip rates to generate flexible waveforms.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 1250 in conjunction withantennas 1240, along with other possible components of user equipment115-e, may transmit information regarding flexible waveforms and/orscaling factors from the user equipment 115-e to base stations or a corenetwork. In some embodiments, the transceiver module 1250, inconjunction with antennas 1240 along with other possible components ofuser equipment 115-e, may transmit information, such as flexiblewaveforms and/or scaling factors, to base stations or a core networksuch that these devices or systems may utilize flexible waveforms.

FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of a communications system 1300 that maybe configured for mobility management in accordance with variousembodiments. This system 1300 may be an example of aspects of the system100 depicted in FIG. 1, systems 200 of FIG. 2, system 300 of FIG. 3,and/or system 1400 of FIG. 14. The base station 105-e may includeantennas 1345, a transceiver module 1350, memory 1370, and a processormodule 1365, which each may be in communication, directly or indirectly,with each other (e.g., over one or more buses). The transceiver module1350 may be configured to communicate bi-directionally, via the antennas1345, with the user equipment 115-f, which may be a multi-mode userequipment. The transceiver module 1350 (and/or other components of thebase station 105-e) may also be configured to communicatebi-directionally with one or more networks. In some cases, the basestation 105-e may communicate with the network 130-a and/or controller120-a through network communications module 1375. Base station 105-e maybe an example of an eNodeB base station, a Home eNodeB base station, aNodeB base station, and/or a Home NodeB base station. Controller 120-amay be integrated into base station 105-e in some cases, such as with aneNodeB base station. Base station 105-e may be an example of basestation 105 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and/or FIG. 14. Userequipment 115-f may be an example of device 600-a as seen in FIG. 6A;device 600-b as seen in FIG. 6B; device 700 of FIG. 7; and/or userequipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, and/or FIG.14.

Base station 105-e may also communicate with other base stations 105,such as base station 105-m and base station 105-n. Each of the basestations 105 may communicate with user equipment 115-f using differentwireless communications technologies, such as different Radio AccessTechnologies. In some cases, base station 105-e may communicate withother base stations such as 105-m and/or 105-n utilizing base stationcommunication module 1315. In some embodiments, base stationcommunication module 1315 may provide an X2 interface within an LTEwireless communication technology to provide communication between someof the base stations 105. In some embodiments, base station 105-e maycommunicate with other base stations through controller 120-a and/ornetwork 130-a.

The memory 1370 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-onlymemory (ROM). The memory 1370 may also store computer-readable,computer-executable software code 1371 containing instructions that areconfigured to, when executed, cause the processor module 1365 to performvarious functions described herein (e.g., call processing, databasemanagement, message routing, etc.). Alternatively, the software 1371 maynot be directly executable by the processor module 1365 but beconfigured to cause the computer, e.g., when compiled and executed, toperform functions described herein.

The processor module 1365 may include an intelligent hardware device,e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) such as those made by Intel®Corporation or AMD®, a microcontroller, an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), etc. The processor module 1365 may include aspeech encoder (not shown) configured to receive audio via a microphone,convert the audio into packets (e.g., 20 ms in length) representative ofthe received audio, provide the audio packets to the transceiver module1350, and provide indications of whether a user is speaking.Alternatively, an encoder may only provide packets to the transceivermodule 1350, with the provision or withholding/suppression of the packetitself providing the indication of whether a user is speaking.

The transceiver module 1350 may include a modem configured to modulatethe packets and provide the modulated packets to the antennas 1345 fortransmission, and to demodulate packets received from the antennas 1345.While some examples of the base station 105-e may include a singleantenna 1345, the base station 105-e preferably includes multipleantennas 1345 for multiple links which may support carrier aggregation.For example, one or more links may be used to support macrocommunications with user equipment 115-f.

According to the architecture of FIG. 13, the base station 105-e mayfurther include a communications management module 1330. Thecommunications management module 1330 may manage communications withother base stations 105. By way of example, the communicationsmanagement module 1330 may be a component of the base station 105-e incommunication with some or all of the other components of the basestation 105-e via a bus. Alternatively, functionality of thecommunications management module 1330 may be implemented as a componentof the transceiver module 1350, as a computer program product, and/or asone or more controller elements of the processor module 1365.

The base station 105-e may also include a spectrum identification module1315. The spectrum identification module 1315 may be utilized toidentify spectrum available for flexible waveforms. In some embodiments,a handover module 1325 may be utilized to perform handover procedures ofthe user equipment 115-f from one base station 105 to another. Forexample, the handover module 1325 may perform a handover procedure ofthe user equipment 115-f from base station 105-e to another where normalwaveforms are utilized between the user equipment 115-f and one of thebase stations and flexible waveforms are utilized between the userequipment and another base station. A scaling module 1310 may beutilized to scale and/or alter chip rates to generate flexiblewaveforms.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 1350 in conjunction withantennas 1345, along with other possible components of base station105-e, may transmit information regarding flexible waveforms and/orscaling factors from the base station 105-e to the user equipment 115-f,to other base stations 105-m/105-n, or core network 130-a. In someembodiments, the transceiver module 1350 in conjunction with antennas1345, along with other possible components of base station 105-e, maytransmit information to the user equipment 115-f, to other base stations105-m/105-n, or core network 130-a, such as flexible waveforms and/orscaling factors, such that these devices or systems may utilize flexiblewaveforms.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a system 1400 including a base station105-f and a user equipment 115-g in accordance with various embodiments.This system 1400 may be an example of the system 100 of FIG. 1, systems200 of FIG. 2, system 300 of FIG. 3, and/or system 1300 of FIG. 13. Thebase station 105-f may be equipped with antennas 1434-a through 1434-x,and the user equipment 115-g may be equipped with antennas 1452-athrough 1452-n. At the base station 105-f, a transmit processor 1420 mayreceive data from a data source. Base station 105-f may be an example ofbase station 105 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and/or FIG. 13. Userequipment 115-g may be an example of device 600-a as seen in FIG. 6A;device 600-b as seen in FIG. 6B; device 700 of FIG. 7; and/or userequipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, and/or FIG.13.

The transmitter processor 1420 may process the data. The transmitterprocessor 1420 may also generate reference symbols, and a cell-specificreference signal. A transmit (TX) MIMO processor 1430 may performspatial processing (e.g., precoding) on data symbols, control symbols,and/or reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide output symbolstreams to the transmit modulators 1432-a through 1432-x. Each modulator1432 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM,etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator 1432 may furtherprocess (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) theoutput sample stream to obtain a downlink (DL) signal. In one example,DL signals from modulators 1432-a through 1432-x may be transmitted viathe antennas 1434-a through 1434-x, respectively. The transmitterprocessor 1420 may receive information from a processor 1440. Theprocessor 1440 may be configured to generate flexible waveforms throughaltering a chip rate and/or utilizing a scaling factor; this may be donedynamically in some cases. The processor 1440 may also provide fordifferent alignment and/or offsetting procedures. The processor 1440 mayalso utilize scaling and/or chip rate information to performmeasurements on the other subsystems, perform handoffs to the othersubsystems, perform reselection, etc. The processor 1440 may invert theeffects of time stretching associated with the use of flexible bandwidththrough parameter scaling. In some embodiments, the processor 1440 maybe implemented as part of a general processor, the transmitter processor1420, and/or the receiver processor 1438.

At the user equipment 115-g, the user equipment antennas 1452-a through1452-n may receive the DL signals from the base station 105-f and mayprovide the received signals to the demodulators 1454-a through 1454-n,respectively. Each demodulator 1454 may condition (e.g., filter,amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal toobtain input samples. Each demodulator 1454 may further process theinput samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMOdetector 1456 may obtain received symbols from all the demodulators1454-a through 1454-n, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols ifapplicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive processor 1458 mayprocess (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detectedsymbols, providing decoded data for the user equipment 115-g to a dataoutput, and provide decoded control information to a processor 1480, ormemory 1482.

On the uplink (UL), at the user equipment 115-g, a transmitter processor1464 may receive and process data from a data source. The transmitterprocessor 1464 may also generate reference symbols for a referencesignal. The symbols from the transmitter processor 1464 may be precodedby a transmit MIMO processor 1466 if applicable, further processed bythe demodulators 1454-a through 1454-n (e.g., for SC-FDMA, etc.), and betransmitted to the base station 105-f in accordance with thetransmission parameters received from the base station 105-E Thetransmitter processor 1464 may also be configured to generate flexiblewaveforms through altering a chip rate and/or utilizing a scalingfactor; this may be done dynamically in some cases. The transmitterprocessor 1464 may receive information from processor 1480. Theprocessor 1480 may provide for different alignment and/or offsettingprocedures. The processor 1480 may also utilize scaling and/or chip rateinformation to perform measurements on the other subsystems, performhandoffs to the other subsystems, perform reselection, etc. Theprocessor 1480 may invert the effects of time stretching associated withthe use of flexible bandwidth through parameter scaling. At the basestation 105-f, the UL signals from the user equipment 115-g may bereceived by the antennas 1434, processed by the demodulators 1432,detected by a MIMO detector 1436 if applicable, and further processed bya receive processor. The receive processor 1438 may provide decoded datato a data output and to the processor 1480. In some embodiments, theprocessor 1480 may be implemented as part of a general processor, thetransmitter processor 1464, and/or the receiver processor 1458.

In some embodiments, the processor 1480 is configured mobilitymanagement. For example, processor 1480 may be configured for mobilitymanagement, including set management. For such set management, someembodiments include intra-frequency and inter-frequency set managementbased on the value of bandwidth scaling factors N. The processor 1480may be configured to identify one or more cells of the wirelesscommunications systems 1400. A respective bandwidth scaling factorassociate with each respective identified cell may be identified.Processor 1480 may be configured to determine multiple sets. Eachrespective set may be associated with one of the respective bandwidthscaling factors. Processor 1480 may be configured to associate eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.

Turning to FIG. 15A, a flow diagram of a method 1500-a for mobilitymanagement for wireless communications systems in accordance withvarious embodiments. Method 1500-a may be implemented utilizing variouswireless communications devices including, but not limited to: a userequipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14; and/or device 600-a of FIG. 6A, device 600-b of FIG. 6B,and/or device 700 of FIG. 7.

At block 1505, one or more cells of the wireless communication systemsmay be identified. At block 1510, a respective bandwidth scaling factorassociate with each respective identified cell may be identified. Atblock 1515, multiple sets may be determined Each respective set may beassociated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors. Atblock 1520, each respective identified cell may be associated with oneof the respective sets based on their respective associated bandwidthscaling factors.

Some embodiments of method 1500-a include determining a candidate cellfrom within the multiple sets. Determining the candidate cell fromwithin the multiple sets may utilize at least a serving cell ID, acenter frequency, or a respective bandwidth scaling factor. Thecandidate cell may be considered a best cell. One or more offsets may beutilized with respect to the one or more sets to determine the candidatecell from within the multiple sets. Power offsets may be utilized insome cases.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining multiple activesets, where each respective active set is associated with a respectivebandwidth scaling factor. Each respective active sets may be furtherassociated with at least a cell ID, a center carrier frequency, or achannel number. Some embodiments include determining multiple bandwidthscaling factors, where each respective bandwidth scaling factor isassociated with an active set. Some embodiments include determining atleast one active set that is associate with multiple bandwidth scalingfactors.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining multiple virtualactive sets, where each respective virtual active set is associated witha respective bandwidth scaling factor. Some embodiments includedetermining multiple bandwidth scaling factors, where each respectivebandwidth scaling factor is associated with an virtual active set. Someembodiments include determining at least one virtual active set that isassociate with a multiple bandwidth scaling factors.

Determining the multiple sets may include determining one or moremonitored or candidate sets, where each respective monitored orcandidate set is associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.Determining the multiple sets may include determining one or moredetected or neighbor sets, where each respective detected or neighborset is associated with a respective scaling factor. Some embodimentsinclude determining multiple bandwidth scaling factors, where eachrespective bandwidth scaling factor is associated with at least amonitored set of a candidate set. Some embodiments include determiningat least monitored set or candidate set that is associated with multiplebandwidth scaling factors.

Identifying the one or more cells of the wireless communications systemsmay include determining a signal strength or measurement of each of theone or more identified cells. It may be determined whether the signalstrength or the measurement of each of the one or more identified cellsexceeds a determine signal strength threshold or a determinedmeasurement threshold. Other information and statistics from theidentified cells may also be utilized. Such information can be signalstrength, channel power, relative channel power, error rates, errornumbers, etc. Furthermore, the threshold may be modified by over the airmessages. The thresholds may be mapped or modified with respect to thebandwidth. For example, take a system with one N=1 and one N=2 carrieslocated at the same location and transmitting the same power spectraldensity (PSD). All other things being equal, to compare signal strengthsof the two systems, the signal threshold for the ½ BW system could bescaled by 3 dB with respect to the N=1 system.

Determining the candidate cell from within the multiple sets mayfacilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrier and asecond bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, where the first flexiblebandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier utilize the samebandwidth scaling factor. Determining the candidate cell from themultiple sets may facilitate mobility between a first flexible bandwidthcarrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein thefirst flexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrierutilize different bandwidth scaling factor. Determining the candidatecell from within the multiple sets may facilitate mobility between anormal flexible bandwidth carrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.

Method 1500-a may be utilized with a wireless communications system thatmay includes multiple cells configured for simultaneous communicationwith a user equipment, where each cell utilizes at least a differentcarrier or a different bandwidth. In some embodiments, the wirelesscommunications system includes multiple cells configured to connect witha user equipment, where each cell includes a plurality of carriers. Insome embodiments, the wireless communications system includes a cellconfigured to utilize two different carrier frequencies simultaneouslyto communicate with a user equipment.

Turning to FIG. 15B, a flow diagram of a method 1500-b for mobilitymanagement for wireless communications systems in accordance withvarious embodiments. Method 1500-a may be implemented utilizing variouswireless communications devices including, but not limited to: a userequipment 115 as seen in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 12, FIG. 13,and/or FIG. 14; and/or device 600-a of FIG. 6A, device 600-b of FIG. 6B,and/or device 700 of FIG. 7. Method 1500-b may be an example of method1500-a of FIG. 15A.

At block 1505-a, one or more cells of the wireless communications systemmay be identified. At block 1510-a, a respective bandwidth scalingfactor associate with each respective identified cell may be identified.At block 1515-a, virtual, active, monitored, and/or detected sets may bedetermined. Each respective set may be associated with one of therespective bandwidth scaling factors. At block 1520-a, each respectiveidentified cell may be associated with one of the respective sets basedon their respective associated bandwidth scaling factors. At block 1525,a candidate cell from within the multiple sets may be determined Thecandidate cell may be considered a best cell. One or more offsets may beutilized with respect to the one or more sets to determine the candidatecell from within the multiple sets.

The detailed description set forth above in connection with the appendeddrawings describes exemplary embodiments and does not represent the onlyembodiments that may be implemented or that are within the scope of theclaims. The term “exemplary” used throughout this description means“serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” and not “preferred”or “advantageous over other embodiments.” The detailed descriptionincludes specific details for the purpose of providing an understandingof the described techniques. These techniques, however, may be practicedwithout these specific details. In some instances, well-known structuresand devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuringthe concepts of the described embodiments.

Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety ofdifferent technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions,commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may bereferenced throughout the above description may be represented byvoltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles,optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and modules described in connection withthe disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with ageneral-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. Ageneral-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, softwareexecuted by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. Ifimplemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may bestored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are withinthe scope and spirit of the disclosure and appended claims. For example,due to the nature of software, functions described above can beimplemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware,hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. Features implementingfunctions may also be physically located at various positions, includingbeing distributed such that portions of functions are implemented atdifferent physical locations. Also, as used herein, including in theclaims, “or” as used in a list of items prefaced by “at least one of”indicates a disjunctive list such that, for example, a list of “at leastone of A, B, or C” means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., Aand B and C).

Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. A storage medium may be anyavailable medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose orspecial-purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation,computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or otheroptical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storagedevices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desiredprogram code means in the form of instructions or data structures andthat can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer,or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connectionis properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if thesoftware is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote sourceusing a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digitalsubscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio,and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave areincluded in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein,include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatiledisc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproducedata magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above are also included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable aperson skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Variousmodifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may beapplied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scopeof the disclosure. Throughout this disclosure the term “example” or“exemplary” indicates an example or instance and does not imply orrequire any preference for the noted example. Thus, the disclosure isnot to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is tobe accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of mobility management for a wirelesscommunications system, the method comprising: identifying one or morecells of the wireless communications system; identifying a respectivebandwidth scaling factor associate with each respective identified cell;determining a plurality of sets, wherein each respective set isassociated with one of the respective bandwidth scaling factors; andassociating each respective identified cell with one of the respectivesets based on their respective associated bandwidth scaling factors. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a candidate cellfrom within the plurality of sets.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereindetermining the candidate cell from within the plurality of setsutilizes at least a serving cell ID, a center frequency, or a respectivebandwidth scaling factor.
 4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:utilizing one or more offsets with respect to the plurality of sets todetermine the candidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising: utilizing one or more poweroffsets with respect to the plurality of sets to determine the candidatecell from within the plurality of sets.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein determining the plurality of sets comprises: determining aplurality of active sets, wherein each respective active set isassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, wherein each respective active set is further associated withat least a cell ID, a center carrier frequency, or a channel number. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a plurality ofbandwidth scaling factors, wherein each respective bandwidth scalingfactor is associated with an active set.
 9. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining at least one active set that isassociated with a plurality of bandwidth scaling factors.
 10. The methodof claim 1, wherein determining the plurality of sets comprises:determining a plurality of virtual active sets, wherein each respectivevirtual active set is associated with a respective bandwidth scalingfactor.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining aplurality of bandwidth scaling factors, wherein each respectivebandwidth scaling factor is associated with a virtual active set. 12.The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining at least onevirtual active set that is associate with a plurality of bandwidthscaling factors.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theplurality of sets comprises: determining one or more monitored orcandidate sets, wherein each respective monitored or candidate set isassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining a plurality of bandwidthscaling factors, wherein each respective bandwidth scaling factor isassociated with at least a monitored set or a candidate set.
 15. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining at least monitoredset or candidate set that is associated with a plurality of bandwidthscaling factors.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theplurality of sets comprises determining one or more detected or neighborsets, wherein each respective detected or neighbor set is associatedwith a respective scaling factor.
 17. The method of claim 1, whereinidentifying the one or more cells of the wireless communications systemcomprises: determining a measurement of each of the one or moreidentified cells; and determining that the measurement of each of theone or more identified cells exceeds a determined measurement threshold.18. The method of claim 17, wherein the measurement includes at least asignal strength, a relative strength, a signal quality, or a measurementerror statistic.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the determinedmeasurement threshold is remapped with a bandwidth.
 20. The method ofclaim 2, wherein determining the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets facilitates mobility between a first flexiblebandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier,wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidthcarrier utilize the same bandwidth scaling factor.
 21. The method ofclaim 2, wherein determining the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets facilitates mobility between a first flexiblebandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier,wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidthcarrier utilize different bandwidth scaling factor.
 22. The method ofclaim 2, wherein determining the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets facilitates mobility between a normal bandwidthcarrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.
 23. The method of claim 2,wherein determining the candidate cell from within the plurality of setsfacilitates mobility between a first radio access technology and asystem with a flexible bandwidth carrier.
 24. The method of claim 1,wherein the wireless communications system includes a plurality of cellsconfigured for simultaneous communication with a user equipment, whereineach cell utilizes at least a different carrier or a differentbandwidth.
 25. The method of claim 1, wherein the wirelesscommunications system includes a plurality of cells configured toconnect with a user equipment, wherein each cell includes a plurality ofcarriers.
 26. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communicationssystem includes a cell configured to utilize two different carrierfrequencies simultaneously to communicate with a user equipment.
 27. Awireless communications system configured for mobility management forwireless communications, the system comprising: means for identifyingone or more cells of the wireless communications system; means foridentifying a respective bandwidth scaling factor associate with eachrespective identified cell; means for determining a plurality of sets,wherein each respective set is associated with one of the respectivebandwidth scaling factors; and means for associating each respectiveidentified cell with one of the respective sets based on theirrespective bandwidth associated scaling factors.
 28. The wirelesscommunications system of claim 27, further comprising: means fordetermining a candidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 29. Thewireless communications system of claim 28, further comprising: meansfor utilizing one or more offsets with respect the plurality of sets todetermine the candidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 30. Thewireless communications system of claim 27, wherein the means fordetermining the plurality of sets comprises: means for determining aplurality of active sets, wherein each respective active set isassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.
 31. The wirelesscommunications system of claim 27, wherein the means for determining theplurality of sets comprises: means for determining a plurality ofvirtual active sets, wherein each respective virtual active set isassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.
 32. The wirelesscommunications system of claim 27, wherein the means for determining theplurality of sets comprises: means for determining one or more monitoredor candidate sets, wherein each respective monitored or candidate set isassociated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.
 33. The wirelesscommunications system of claim 27, wherein the means for determining theplurality of sets comprises: means for determining one or more detectedor neighbor sets, wherein each respective detected or neighbor set isassociated with a respective scaling factor.
 34. The wirelesscommunications system of claim 27, wherein the means for identifying theone or more cells comprises: means for determining a measurement of eachof the one or more identified cells; and means for determining that themeasurement of each of the one or more identified cells exceeds adetermined measurement threshold.
 35. The wireless communications systemof claim 28, wherein the means for determining the candidate cell fromwithin the plurality of sets facilitates mobility between a firstflexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidthcarrier, wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the secondbandwidth carrier utilize the same bandwidth scaling factor.
 36. Thewireless communications system of claim 28, wherein the means fordetermining the candidate cell from within the plurality of setsfacilitates mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrier and asecond bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein the first flexiblebandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier utilize differentbandwidth scaling factor.
 37. The wireless communications system ofclaim 28, wherein the means for determining the candidate cell fromwithin the plurality of sets facilitates mobility between a normalbandwidth carrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.
 38. A computerprogram product for mobility management for a wireless communicationssystem comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:code for identifying one or more cells of the wireless communicationssystem; code for identifying a respective bandwidth scaling factorassociate with each respective identified cell; code for creating aplurality of sets, wherein each respective set is associated with one ofthe respective bandwidth scaling factors; and code for associating eachrespective identified cell with one of the respective sets based ontheir respective associated bandwidth scaling factors.
 39. The computerprogram product of claim 38, wherein the non-transitorycomputer-readable medium further comprising: code for determining acandidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 40. The computerprogram product of claim 39, wherein the non-transitorycomputer-readable medium further comprising: code for utilizing one ormore offsets with respect to the plurality of sets to determine thecandidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 41. The computerprogram product of claim 38, wherein the code for determining theplurality of sets comprises: code for determining a plurality of activesets, wherein each respective active set is associated with a respectivebandwidth scaling factor.
 42. The computer program product of claim 38,wherein the code for determining the plurality of sets comprises: codefor determining a plurality of virtual active sets, wherein eachrespective virtual active set is associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor.
 43. The computer program product of claim 38, whereinthe code for determining the plurality of sets comprises: code fordetermining one or more monitored or candidate sets, wherein eachrespective monitored or candidate set is associated with a respectivebandwidth scaling factor.
 44. The computer program product of claim 38,wherein the code for determining the plurality of sets comprises: codefor determining one or more detected or neighbor sets, wherein eachrespective detected or neighbor set is associated with a respectivebandwidth scaling factor.
 45. The computer program product of claim 38,wherein the code for identifying one or more cells of the wirelesscommunications system comprises: code for determining a measurement ofeach of the one or more identified cells; and code for determining thatthe measurement of each of the one or more identified cells exceeds adetermined measurement threshold.
 46. The computer program product ofclaim 39, wherein the code for determining the candidate cell fromwithin the plurality of sets facilitates mobility between a firstflexible bandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidthcarrier, wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the secondbandwidth carrier utilize the same bandwidth scaling factor.
 47. Thecomputer program product of claim 39, wherein the code for determiningthe candidate cell from within the plurality of sets facilitatesmobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrier and a secondbandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein the first flexiblebandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier utilize differentbandwidth scaling factor.
 48. The computer program product of claim 39,wherein the code for determining the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets facilitates mobility between a normal bandwidthcarrier and a flexible bandwidth carrier.
 49. A wireless communicationsdevice configured for mobility management for a wireless communicationssystem, the device comprising: at least one processor configured to:identify one or more cells of the wireless communications system;identify a respective bandwidth scaling factor associate with eachrespective identified cell; create a plurality of sets, wherein eachrespective set is associated with one of the respective bandwidthscaling factors; and associate each respective identified cell with oneof the respective sets based on their respective associated scalingfactors; and at least one memory coupled with the at least oneprocessor.
 50. The wireless communications device of claim 49, whereinthe at least one processor is further configured to: determine acandidate cell from within the plurality of sets.
 51. The wirelesscommunications device of claim 50, wherein the at least one processor isfurther configured to utilize one or more offsets with respect to theplurality of sets to determine the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets.
 52. The wireless communications device of claim 49,wherein the at least one processor configured to determine the pluralityof sets is configured to: determine a plurality of active sets, whereineach respective active set is associated with a respective bandwidthscaling factor.
 53. The wireless communications device of claim 49,wherein the at least one processor configured to determine the pluralityof sets is configured to: determine a plurality of virtual active sets,wherein each respective virtual active set is associated with arespective bandwidth scaling factor.
 54. The wireless communicationsdevice of claim 49, wherein the at least one processor configured todetermine the plurality of sets is configured to: determine one or moremonitored or candidate sets, wherein each respective monitored orcandidate set is associated with a respective bandwidth scaling factor.55. The wireless communications device of claim 49, wherein the at leastone processor configured to determine the plurality of sets isconfigured to: determining one or more detected or neighbor sets,wherein each respective detected or neighbor set is associated with arespective bandwidth scaling factor.
 56. The wireless communicationsdevice of claim 49, wherein the at least one processor configured toidentify one or more cells of the wireless communications system isconfigured to: determine a measurement of each of the one or moreidentified cells; and determine that the measurement of each of the oneor more identified cells exceeds a determined measurement threshold. 57.The wireless communications device of claim 50, wherein the at least oneprocessor configured to determine the candidate cell from within theplurality of sets facilitates mobility between a first flexiblebandwidth carrier and a second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier,wherein the first flexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidthcarrier utilize the same bandwidth scaling factor.
 58. The wirelesscommunications device of claim 50, wherein the at least one processorconfigured to determine the candidate cell from within the plurality ofsets facilitates mobility between a first flexible bandwidth carrier anda second bandwidth flexible bandwidth carrier, wherein the firstflexible bandwidth carrier and the second bandwidth carrier utilizedifferent bandwidth scaling factor.
 59. The wireless communicationsdevice of claim 50, wherein the at least one processor configured todetermine the candidate cell from within the plurality of setsfacilitates mobility between a normal bandwidth carrier and a flexiblebandwidth carrier.